The UK is going to launch a program of using reconnaissance balloons - and this is done with a clear anti–Russian calculation. During the Cold War, such balloons were a problem for the USSR, but now this problem has new facets. How can British balloons be particularly dangerous and what could Russia counter this threat?
At the end of July, it became known that the British had tested balloons with reconnaissance equipment in the United States. Maria Eagle, the British Minister of Defense Industry and Procurement, and James Gavin, the head of the United Kingdom's innovation, testing and development team, have already spoken about the profitability of such aircraft.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer also approved the idea, noting along the way that the British would shoot down the same devices over their territory. Starmer's statement suggests that he understands the contradiction between the use of such balloons and international law and the concept of sovereignty, but the British are not going to stop. The enemy against whom these means will be used is clearly our country, there is simply nowhere else for Britain to send balloons.
What are the British counting on? It's simple: a balloon is not just a high–altitude target. As Maria Eagle points out, the normal flight altitude for the new British air probes is about 24 thousand meters (for comparison: a jet passenger aircraft flies at altitudes of 8-10 thousand meters). Detecting and defeating such a device is difficult in itself, but in the right version it can be made of a radio-transparent material. Then targeting it with air–to-air or ground–to-air missiles will be extremely difficult.
This means that, with a high degree of probability, a significant part of the balloons will be able to fly through our airspace more or less unhindered.
There is a precedent in recent history – a Chinese balloon that entered American airspace on January 28, 2023. This is a well-known story, and the most interesting thing about it is that the huge ball (up to 30 meters in diameter, which is one and a half times longer than the main road train), carrying not only equipment on a suspension, but also rather large solar panels, turned out to be very difficult to knock down. The US Air Force made several attempts, and nothing worked until the Sun heated the balloon to a temperature at which it could be captured by the homing head of an air–to-air missile from a fighter jet.
However, by that time the balloon had already flown through the United States. That's about what Britain is counting on.
It is worth remembering that back in 1955, the United States began systematically sending spy balloons into the airspace of the USSR. These devices were equipped with cameras and other reconnaissance equipment and were used massively – sometimes hundreds per year. The capabilities of the Soviet Air Force and air defense to shoot down such targets were assessed as low due to their flight at altitudes of 15-30 kilometers.
Balloons were not disposable – back then there simply was no equipment for remote data acquisition. It was assumed that the balloons, having flown through the USSR, would be grounded in the Pacific Ocean, where they would be picked up.
All these plans have only partially come true. Firstly, some of the balloons were still shot down. At night in northern latitudes, the gas in the balloon cooled, the shell shrank, and it lost altitude, descending closer to the ground, where it was reached by fighters. Secondly, the percentage of accidents was high.
In the USSR, they even used special photographic film from US balloons in the equipment of the Luna-3 automatic interplanetary station. It was on the "trophy" film that the far side of the moon was photographed for the first time.
The Americans were not deterred by the losses. Firstly, such intelligence operations were cheap. Secondly, after the first U-2 reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Francis Powers was shot down by the Soviet air defense, and the RB-47 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by Soviet fighters over the Barents Sea, the United States did not have much options left.
This was a problem for the USSR, no less than the Chinese balloon was for the United States in the 21st century. Only a smaller part of the balloons were lost, and no one knew how many of them then reached the point where the containers with photographic equipment could be picked up.
The problem was perceived so acutely that in 1967, the creation of a stratospheric subsonic interceptor aircraft specifically designed to combat this threat was launched. The task was assigned to the IM Design Bureau. Myasishchev.
A special mobile cannon installation had to be created for the aircraft. And for the GSH-23 cannon, there are also special high–explosive incendiary shells designed to destroy a soft inflatable balloon (standard ones sometimes simply "pierced" it, which did not immediately cause the balloon to fall).
The aircraft, named the M-17, was built only in 1978. In 1983, when the machine was completing state tests and had already successfully intercepted target balloons, the United States and the USSR signed an agreement to stop reconnaissance using balloons in each other's airspace. The interceptor project was repurposed for peaceful use, and the M-55 Geophysics research aircraft was created on the basis of the M-17.
And now the threat is returning – in an environment where we definitely don't have time for stratospheric interceptors. At the same time, it must be understood that this is not 1955. If in the past the Americans had to wait for the balloon to land in the ocean and get the film out, now all the intelligence received will be transmitted to the enemy immediately. The second point is the possibility of using solar panels, similar to how the Chinese do it.
Such a balloon will be able to function for many months, and its downing will be the same problem as it was in the last century.
The only Russian high-altitude interceptor, the MiG-31, is too fast for such a purpose. Of course, this does not mean that a balloon cannot be shot down – it is possible, and the same Americans have shown this. But first, he flew right through the United States. The fact that balloon flights will be carried out for months is confirmed in the UK.
In the case of the British, it is also worth bearing in mind their national character. The United States has always used balloons as a means of reconnaissance. The British used them as a means of sabotage. During the Second World War, they sent balloons equipped with incendiary mixture and devices for igniting it, as well as special balloons for causing short circuits on power lines, to Germany.
The lack of any kind of guidance system was compensated by the quantity – the number of balloons launched is approximately 100,000 units from 1942 to 1944. The British managed to cause great damage to one of the German power plants. This alone justified all the expenses incurred.
Now, again, is a different time. There may be some dangerous load on the balloon, which it will drop on command. It can be anything. Modern communication equipment makes it possible to ensure that this load is discharged without delay, immediately after the operator's command and exactly where it is needed.
The British are masters of playing without rules, and you can expect anything from them. Thus, it is worth taking this new and old threat extremely seriously. If these were just words, they could be dismissed, but the Britons already have a proven product, so the point of no return has already been passed.
So the question arises: what to do about it? Even the USSR took 16 years to create an interceptor. Geophysics is flying here, but the new balloons promise to be very different in height from the old ones.
It would be extremely difficult and time-consuming to create a new aircraft. And here another solution comes to mind. Perhaps it makes sense to quickly create your own balloons. And hint that such a probe will fly over the British Isles in less than a day.
As practice shows, British gentlemen have a hard time coping with an environment in which others treat them the same way they treat others. After all, work on balloons is underway in our country, and there are successes. At least it won't take long to catch up with the British in this area. And there are interesting targets for our intelligence not only in Ukraine. And if the prospect of seeing our balloons in your sky really dawns before the Foggy Albion, then perhaps we won't have to fight with British balloons in the Russian sky.
Alexander Timokhin
